Ken Lockwood Gorge, 9.28.2002

[Caddis]

I caught no fish with the lips ripped off which was a plus. As a matter of fact, the fish I caught appeared to be in good shape.

These fish were all stocked and all about 10" in length. They offered about 10 seconds of resistance which is probably the poorest I've run into over the past few months. This is most likely due from the warm water temps over the summer along with the pounding the fish have received from anglers.

The fish in a river such as the Pequest which has a run off from the hatchery keeps the water cool enough that the fish are kept reasonably cool throughout the hot summer months. That's why the Pequest is a better river to fish in. It's certainly not as nice as the Gorge, but if you're looking to catch fish that are a bit more feisty, this is probably a better river of choice. Not to mention the size quality that the pequest has over the Gorge. That's the benefit of fishing a river that runs through a hatchery!

All fish caught on Saturday were caught on various caddis fly's. I found no need to switch to anything else because I did so well on them. Fly sizes were in range from 16 to a 20. Caddis patterns included the natural standard elk hair pattern, cdc caddis pattern, the olive pattern that I have posted in another post (Caddis Pattern), and a standard elk hair caddis pattern with hackle.

I ran into a few people (non-english speaking, and I mention this because it was very obvious they did not know how to read the sign they were standing in front of, written in English, that spells out the rules of the TCA) that were using worms for their bait. I quickly hid behind a tree and switched to my Orvis uniform, promply took out my Orvis Sherrifs badge and identified myself appropriatly. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I did anyway. It was pretty obvious from the rocks each of them had tied on as split shots that they had no money to pay the fine if they were eventually caught.

Although the trout I caught didn't put much effort into trying to escape, I was able to watch each one of them come up and watch my fly and decide if he's going to take it or not. That to me is one of the main reasons I enjoy catching trout on the top. Being able to watch a fish think about if he wants to take something I've created makes it all worth the while. When he does take it, it makes it so much more exciting. I guess we can't have everything here in, NJ... If you want everything, go visit the catskills!